The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume One: 1 by Trungpa Chogyam & Carolyn Rose Gimian

Author:Trungpa, Chogyam & Carolyn Rose Gimian [Trungpa, Chogyam]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
Published: 2010-09-28T03:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

Touch and Go!

THOUGH I HAD frequently impressed upon all members of our party that they must inform me about any particular difficulties, I had been given no warning of an emergency, until some of them came to tell me that several of them had run out of food. They were actually beginning to boil the leather of their yak-skin bags; usually this leather is roughly cured with much of the fat left in it so it has some food value. I made enquiries among other groups and found they were having to do the same thing. The people had not wanted to worry me, since they knew that I had so many other grave anxieties.

At the same time we again lost our bearings and went too far in a northeasterly direction, which compelled us to retrace our steps for three days. Tsepa’s belief that we were near Tsela Dzong had evidently been wrong. We now followed a small valley running east until it also turned in a northerly direction and we had to leave it for another leading toward the south. Again there were more mountain ranges in front of us; the nearest ones were not very high and we were able to cross two each day for three days, but after this we were faced with much higher ridges each of which took more than a day’s traveling to cross.

By this time many more of the refugees had consumed their last provisions, except for their leather bags and my own group had decided that they too must fall back on this fare, though some leather would have to be kept to build the coracles needed to cross the Brahmaputra, which meant we would have to go on very short commons meanwhile; it was now early November and there were no wild vegetables which could be used as a supplement. In spite of all their troubles the party was still cheerful and as soon as they found themselves in sufficiently remote places everyone would laugh and sing and individual groups would join with the monks in devotional chanting. They all seemed to have become acclimatized to the routine of traveling and the daily hardships.

Previously the weather had been good and usually sunny, but now winter was beginning with storms of rain turning into snow. It was taking longer to cover any distance over these high mountains and looking back we could often see the spot where we had camped the evening before. One day, after reaching the summit of a col, as we walked down on the farther side we could see open country with a broad river flowing through it which we thought must be the Brahmaputra. The landscape was clouded in smoke, but through my field glasses I could see Chinese lorries moving along the road beside the river. This came as a shock to all of us, for we had not known that there was a roadway through Lower Kongpo. Tsepa thought that this time we really

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